Meet The Mafia: "Hannabill Lecter"

Beyond the Hannibal Lecter-styled mask, "Hannabill Lecter" is an educator, a husband, a father, and a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan. But slap that mask on him on a given Sunday afternoon, he's one of the scariest-looking members of the Bills Mafia. Get to know the man behind the mask in "Meet The Mafia."

Author:
Joshua Robinson

Published:
8:11 AM EDT September 13, 2018

Updated:
10:50 AM EDT September 13, 2018

Monday through Friday, during the school year, his students and peers refer to him as Mr. Barber.

At 6'6", Frank Barber, Assistant Principal at Corning-Painted Post High School, is generally considered a bit of a gentle giant by his students and fellow school faculty members.

Except on Sundays.

"I was brought up to be a Steeler fan, and then I went to my first Bills game in the mid-80s," said Barber, just minutes before school let out. "You see all those colors, and you hear the roar of the crowd for the first time... I knew when I left the stadium that day that I was a Bills fan for life. At 45 years old it still has the same effect on me."

But Barber would never be one for just wearing a jersey on gameday.

Face-painting and dressing up in costume drew some fellow fans' attentions, all the while an alter ego was growing.

"I guess I just wanted to do something a little bit more. I wanted to turn it up a little bit," Barber said. "The mask came first, Twitter kind of made the name come about, because I needed to come up with something."

At first, he went with "Bills Mafia AP," for "Assistant Principal," but the Hannibal Lecter-style mask simply put the finishing touch on his character.

Hannabill Lecter was born.

And whether its his family, his friends, his faculty, or his fellow fans in the stands or in the classroom, everyone embraced the new persona and refused to let him stop.

From there it would only grow: Barber makes his own masks, he wears different combinations of jerseys, masks, chains and shoulder pads.

He even paints his head different colors, including pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"I don't think I would do it anymore if, for one, if my son didn't think that it was cool, and also if the kids at the school didn't think that it was something that made me maybe a little more human," Barber said. "A little more approachable."

Sitting in his office, dressed in full make-up, mask, and garb, Barber admitted to feeling a little uncomfortable, a clash between Barber and Hannabill that he can normally let out on gameday.

He's not a huge shouter or screamer, he said, but he definitely loves giving opposing fans and players as much of a scare as he can.

And yet, there's one thing Barber/Hannabill loves most of all on gamedays.

"The younger fans are the ones I enjoy the most," Barber admitted from behind the mask. "I'm amazed at the younger kids that will come right up to me, even when I'm in character, and I'm kind of a larger guy, and they're not intimidated at all."

Someday, Barber said, he'll stop wearing the mask, maybe to pass it on to his son.

But for now, he's happy to sit in the front row for his 19th season.

"I actually get a little bit embarrassed, maybe I even blush a little bit under the mask, you can't tell, when people say super fan," Barber admitted. "I'm a season ticket holder, I'm a die hard fan, there's millions of us, and that's what the Bills Mafia is about."